NNowadays, social media is by far the easiest platform for bands to promote their music to the fans. It’s hard to believe that only a few years ago, artists had to use things like talk shows and billboards to make announcements for upcoming tours, which required a lot of PR, not to mention a bucketload of cash.

Now with outlets like Facebook and Twitter, promotion couldn’t be simpler. Bands can now share their latest music, display videos and photos from recent performances, upload concert alerts on their news feeds, and even see stats on their fan base, all through social media. With apps like iLike and BandPage on Facebook, and Twitter’s direct connection to millions of supporters, 2012 is most definitely shaping up to be the year of social media, and any artist not on the bandwagon by now will need to play catch-up.

So far, many artists have embraced social media as a promotional tool, while others have yet to catch up with the times. Here are a few of the artists that we think are leading the pack:

Born This Way Ball tour poster

Lady Gaga

As a major Tweeter, Lady Gaga knows how to get in touch with her fans directly when she has a new morsel of news to share. She recently posted on Twitter the first promotional poster for her upcoming Born This Way Ball tour minutes after it had been completed, for all her adoring public to see. She described the poster as a “bit of homework” and confessed that she’d got it “finished early and felt compelled to leak [it] after too much wine.” Well done, Gaga.

Coldplay

This British alternative rock band have always been incredibly grateful for their fan support. Before the advent of social media, Coldplay would share their appreciation in the best way possible at the time – during live performances. Now with Twitter and Facebook, they have taken to sharing behind-the-scenes photos for those fans not fortunate enough to see them perform. They recently posted a picture of themselves on Twitter, only moments before the Brit Awards were scheduled to air.

Kanye West

Say what you want about Kanye’s bizarre behavior (or his annoyingly high opinion of himself, for that matter), but dude knows how to rant. It’s actually becoming a bit of a joke how frequently he posts his “train of thoughts” on Twitter; in January he posted a series of more than 80 tweets that left many fans and critics scratching their heads. In the early hours of the morning, he discussed his struggles in the fashion industry, the inspiration to start a design company in the name of his late mother Donda, and his view on politics and infrastructure. “We need to take what Michael Jackson felt and McQueen and Steve Jobs and we need make things better,” said West in one of his messages. Despite some of his more outlandish viewpoints, West has one of the strongest fan bases on Twitter, with almost 7 million followers to date.